JANUARY 29,-1938
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEVEN
Communism in U, S. Involves Numerous Groups
Once Frankly Revolutionary,
Now It Conceals Its Purpose
Survey Made at Request of Bishops Reveals Growth in
Active Membership From 7,500 in 1929 to 40,000
in 1937, With Myriads of Non-Member Sympathizers
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
Following are excerpts from “Communism in the United States: A
survey”, a pamphlet with study out line published by the National Ca
tholic Welfare Conference, 1312 Massachusetts Ave., N. W., Washington,
D. C., presenting the findings in a re port of its Social Action Department
of a survey made at the request of the General Meeting of the Bishops
of the United States. The report points out the peril to which the
American people are being subjecte d by Communism, gives facts and
figures, and deals in detail with the subtle activities of the Communists
in the United Front scheme. On the back cover are listed the.titles of
eleven N. C. W. C. pamphlets, sev eral of which also deal with Com
munism.
Bishop Gannon Says Catholic
Press Unmasked the Reds
Its Other Services, Particularly During Recent Months,
Recalled by Chairman of N.C.W.C. Press Department
purposes; the baseless attempt to
identify the Holy Father and the
Church with fascism; the exposure of
the untrue news messages suddenly
released to the world from Rome, de
claring the Holy Father on the side of
Japan against China.
(Continued From Page One)
conflict. The secular press, all too
eager for the sensational, became a
comfortable vehicle of exaggeration
and downright falsity.
As the scheme developed, without
correction by the secular press the
N. C. W. C. News Service, with its
world-wide facilities for collecting
and disseminating news, set in oper
ation a counterplan to secure the facts
and the truth of every event.
Then, week by week, our News
Service flooded the American news
field and, in fact, the world, with
the truth of the Spanish situation.
It challenged and disproved the sec
ular press reports, pursued relentless
ly the lies of propaganda and sup
plied the editors of American Cath
olic periodicals with facts, figures
and testimony of incontrovertible
eye-witnesses. The Catholic editors,
taking advantage of this service, were
able to expose the nefarious Red pro-
pagrnda, to challenge the veracity of
many articles in the secular press
and to save our people from becom
ing innocent victims of an easy plot
to confuse and to distort American
public opinion- As a result, the sec
ular press has become quite cautious
m accepting stories from Spain and
more subdued in its careless attitude
toward another nation.
Let us look at Mexico! Here we
find an age-old Catholic people sub
jected to the taunts and abuses of
a political clique for over ten years.
Deprived of the rights due them by
the natural law, and' at times pun
ished by bitter persecution, these
Mexican Catholics have appealed to
the free institutions of America to
hear their cause and restore their
inalienable rights. The N. C. W. C.
News Service and our American
Catholic editors bave been most dili
gent in presenting their case, in all
its varied lights, to the American
people and have crowned their ser
vice by opening the way to Monte
zuma, New Mexico, where a mag
nificent Seminary has been estab
lished to train the Mexican youth
for the Holy Priesthood, to keep the
Church alive and strong until the
Holy Light of Freedom again dawns
on their unhappy land.
Let us look at Germany! Here we
see twenty-three millions of German
Catholics caught in the vise of Nazi
Absolutism and suffering a subtle
persecution as destructive and bitter
as any in history. Their free Cath
olic Press has been destroyed; their
Catholic schools closed and many of
their more courageous leaders either
imprisoned or silenced. Outside the
Holy Father, the strongest voice left
to plead their cause before the human
race is the N. C. W. C. News Service
with its 467 journals and nine mil
lion subscribers throughout the
world. This we propose to continue
until the scorn of an enlightened
world will be turned on the powerful
dictators of Germany and the iron
fist of Naziism will relax its unjust
persecution of a distinguished, a bril
liant and a virtuous German Catholic,
Protestant and Jewish people. Should
this day happily arrive, the N. C.
W. C. News Service and the Catholic
Press Association will share largely
in the victory.
With what pride one calls to mind
the manner in which the Catholic
Press thwarted the shameless plan
of the Red Spaniards to exploit the
Basque children, in shipping them to
the United States for propaganda
On the constructive side, what a
wealth of light and wisdom has the
Catholic Press contributed to the per
plexing economic and social problems
of America, by explaining the Ency
clicals of the Holy Father on labor
and capital, on justice and charity.
It has taught the blessings of peace
in a world stubbornly bent on arma
ment and war. It has kept burning
brightly the lamps of good literature,
of clean drama, of inspiring music
and, -bove all, it has warmed and
strengthened the souls of men with
the counsels and precepts of the Holy
Gospel of Christ during a dark period
when so many were sorely tried by
losses and discouragement, even unto
despair.
And now, my dear gentlemen of the
Press, you seek from me further
counsel in great leadership, in wield
ing the pen during the current year.
My counsel is simple, direct and
Apostolic-
Continue, with well-filled pens,
your valiant fight in defense of the
Holy Catholic Chinch and its mil
lions of faithful worshippers, not only
in America but throughout the world.
Your plea is the plea of Christ. Your
purpose is the union of men’s minds
with God.
There are times when we must go
down into the valley to fight out with
the enemy, our fundamental rights.
Your place, however, is on the moun
tain tops where you can cast your
signal lights of God’s truth and rev
elation to the people living in wide
spread areas. Your mission is not to
be constantly engrossed in economic,
political or material questions. Your
mission was established by no less
a Person than Jesus Christ, Who said:
“Going, therefore, teach ye all na
tions.”
The mission of the Catholic Press
is to gain souls for Christ. You
should always keep in mind, besides
the defense of the Church, the dis
semination of the truths of Christi
anity for the purpose of winning
souls for Christ. This is your mis
sion; this is your glory. It seems
that the masses of our people are
awaiting something positive and cer
tain in the form of religion. The
chimes lie ^Slumbering in the bell
until the stroke awakes them.
In the United States, one hundred
million souls are waiting to hear your
message. For some tiipe, tbe human
race, has unhappily sinned against
God. It is now somewhat abandon
ed by God and in great confusion,
is “sitting in the darkness and the
shadow of death.” We are being pre
pared by God to receive again the
simple, fundamental truths of
Christianity and eternal salvation. In
such an hour of history, the grace of
God will flow abundantly like a del
uge.
Gentlemen of the Catholic Press,
dip your pens in the Truth of Christ
and write so that the love of God for
human souls, and especially Amer
ican souls, will shine through the
pages of your journals. May we soon
have the great joy of seeing the be
ginning of the return or conversion
of Americans to the beautiful sim
plicity and goodness and virtue of
the lowly Nazarene!
The Communist Party is the Ameri
can section of the Moscow Com
munist International Party. It is the
strongest, ablest and most active
organization seeking common owner
ship m the United States and seek
ing it through a revolution led by a
cohesive party.
The Party, having a paper follow
ing of some 50,000 East European im
migrants when it was organized in'
1919 by left-wing Socialists, soon
dwindled and until the Depression
stayed around 7,500 members. During
that time it was strongly revolu
tionary, rigid in its ideology and
methods and against all other organ
izations and movements.
During the worst of the Depression
and before 1935, idea and practice re
mained the same except that the
Party emphasized agitational organ
ization among the new unemployed
and ex-soldiers and created tem
porary bodies to lead them.
O O
I MOSCOW ORDERED CHANGE |
o o
Late in ’34 and definitely in ’35,
under orders from Moscow it chang
ed face. The rise of Hitler in a
country where a strong Party
flourished, the delay of the “revolu
tion.” fear of suppression, and Rus
sian foreign policy dictated the
change. Now it wanted friends for
the Party and friends for Russia.
Its membership has passed from
26,000 in ’34 to 30,000 in ’35 to 41,000
in ’36 (minus an unknown leakage)
and to a little over 40,000 in June,
’37
The Party is not a working people’s
party but mostly one of intellectuals
and white collar people. Manual
labor is only one-third, of whom by
far the most are in small industries.
Only three in eight were union mem
bers in ’36. Farmers are one in 27
members. One-third are women.
Nearly half of the members—some
19 or 20,000—are in one city, New
York and one State, California. An
other 10,000 are scattered throughout
up-State New York, Massachusetts,
’Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wis
consin and Minnesota.
O O
AMAZING ACTIVITY
The few active members do an
amazing amount of work. Rigid train
ing and stern discipline, a compact
few acting under orders, a form of
organization that lets the Party reach
any type of member quickly, a policy
of attacking evils boldly, the creation
of closely dependent organizations
and the co-operation with every
organization possible, a continued
advocacy of popular reforms at a
time when so many are confused
and reconstruction so needed, a
membership, sacrificing fiery, un
scrupulous and obedient and a mes
sianic theory, make of the Party a
most dangerous weapon.
At the center, a general committee
under a Chairman and Secretary, and
an inside policy committee, dictate
the Party’s whole life in accord with
orders from the Moscow central com
mittee and offices.
In turn, the American central com
mittee controls equally rigidly local
policy and officials.
O — —O
GROUP ORGANIZATION I
o o
At the center also are offices to
care for different groups and dif
ferent subjects: Propaganda, labor,
women, foreign language groups,
youth, Negroes, farmers, press, litera
ture, war, imperialism and research.
State and local organizations fol
low the national plan. An organizer,
a director of agitation, and a litera
ture agent appear the minimum
number of officials.
Thus they have: Organization for
voting and political agitation; organ
ization; organization by place of work
and place of living to be reached
easily with Party orders either for
general or special work; organization
by groups or by other organizations-
for the same purposes; secrecy; flex
ibility.
Party meetings now, it is reported,
consist chiefly of plans of work and
discussion of tactics with the em
phasis on showing the connection be
tween working for reforms and revo
lution.
Recruiting formerly was done by
arguing that reform is hopeless and
only revolution worthwhile. Now it
is done by -arguing that reform has
hope but will be fought and therefore
revolution is finally necessary in
eelf-defense.
Party schools are a means both of
recruiting and of training after re
cruitment. According to the Bishops’
surveys, such schools are widespread
wherever Communism is even mod
erately strong.
O O
COMMUNIST GROUPS |
0 O
One group of organizations it
works with have come down from
the first periods, although even some
of these are being changed. These
are chiefly under Communist offi
cials, but always under Communists’
complete control.
Young Communist League. 15,000
members, two-fifths of whom are in
New York. Formerly a youth dup
licate of the Party.
Young Pioneers. Boys and girls—
Eight to 15. Conducts camps and
training schools.
Friends of the Soviet Union (Also
American-Russian Institute for Cul
tural Relations with the Soviet
Union.) Propaganda about Russia.
Small.
International Labor Defense. Legal
and agitational defense of arrested
Communists and selected other per
sons especially from minorities, e. g.,
Scottsboro boys.
International Workers’ Order. Very
important. By far the strongest
100,000 members or more. A fraternal
insurance society chiefly among for
eigners and some Negroes. Complete
Communist control.
Labor Research Associates. An
economic research bureau in New
York to prepare books, pamphlets
and periodicals.
O O
| UNITED FRONT GROUPS |
o o
The following are clearly United
Front Organizations in that there is
formal co-operation with Com
munists.
American League Against War and
Fascism. Chief United Front Organ
ization, 8,000 to 9,000 active members,
but reaching many persons.
North American Committee to Aid
Spanish Democracy. An offshoot of
the American League but with dif
ferent officers. An example of the
common method of founding new
temporary organizations for tem
porary purposes and getting new
names on letterheads.
Workers’ Alliance. A close federa
tion of the unemployed, particularly
those on relief. Mixed Socialist and
Communist national officials, but the
Communist is reported as more able.
American Student Union. A mixed
federation of Communist, Social and
“liberal” student clubs. 20,000 mem
bers.
American Youth Congress. Started
under anti-Communist auspices.
Communists changed the policy.
Mixed in control.
National Negro Congress. Agitates
for Negro, rights at periodical meet
ings. Non-Communist program.
Many churches and fraternal organ
izations are represented. Minority
but strong Communist influence.
Writers’ Congress and Artists’ Con
gress. National and local loosely form
ed organizations emphasizing ques
tions of technique, representation of
the unemployed among them and the
class-struggle idea in writing and
art.
Organizations of Foreign Born. Be
sides the I. W. O. and 1he language
bureaus of the national office and
national “fractions”, there are a few
People’s Front groups and a Com
mittee of Fraternal Organizations.
Besides these there are the ^follow
ing:
Among Farmers. Some relation
ships. with Farm Holiday groups
Seems rather that of moral support.
Among Teachers. The local of the
Teachers’ Union in New York is re
portedly dominated by Communists
and through it they influence the na
tional body.
The Bishops’ surveys report a con
siderable scattering of university and
college professors who work with the
United Front Organizations and the
International Labor Defense.
Among Social Workers. National
Co-ordinating Committee of Social
Service Employee Groups. Publishes
“Social Work Today”.
Civil Liberties Union. Non-Party
radicals are in control but there is
strong Communist representation.
The Bishops’ reports name numer
ous other organizations, some of
which apparently are only locally
“united fronf ’or are only local
organizations. The situation is com
plex.
ARCHBISHOP LAUDS
C. L. A. ACTIVITIES
His Excellency in Washing
ton Address Commends Ef
forts of Laity of Georgia
(Continued From Page One)
up a great deal of the misunder
standing of the Faith in Georgia,”
Archbishop Curley said “what Dick
Reid and his companions have done
only goes to show what Catholic lay
men can do.” He said that in Mr.
Reid’s state there are more converts
to the Faith in relation to the Cath
olic population than in more Catholic
centers of the North.
The Catholic layman, Archbishop
Curley said, is- called to war and to
peace—to “a war against sin,” to “the
peace that is the consequence of our
union with Jesus Christ.” Noting
that war is raging in various parts
of the world, and is “being waged
by men as though they were mere
animals,” the Archbishop added that
“our war is not against any man or
group of men, but against ourselves-”
“Men have conquered nations and yet
in the war against themselves have
been vanquished,” he said. “If we
don’t win that war, everything is lost.
We ay acquire fame, but if we
fail to bring our wills to union with
the will of Christ we must write our
selves down a failure.”
The horrible threat of Communism
stalks among the people of our coun
try, but Catholic lay retreatants will
not be caught in its meshes or those
of any other subversive influence,
Archbishop Curley declared. "To
day,” he said, “the welfare of this
nations is tied up inseparably with
the teachings of the Church—the
Church that teaches respect for au
thority, respect for the foundation of
society—the family and the sanctity
of the marriage bond, that teaches
there is a life beyond this life.”
Mr. Reid began his address by not
ing that in the early history of our
country Georgia was part of the Dio
cese and later Archdiocese of Balti
more, and by recounting the many
ties that have bound the two places
together ever since. The retreat
movement in Georgia was started in
1921, seven years after it was inau
gurated in Washington, Mr. Reid said-
The first retreat was Held at the Jes
uit Novitiate in Macon witl. 20 men
in attendance. Shortly afterward the
novitiate burned, and the retreatants
took over an abandoned school build
ing in Augusta, placing cots in the old
classrooms, and held retreats there
for six years. Terrific heat and mos
quitoes—there were no screens for
the windows, were real trials, but the
men continued to hold their spiritual
exercises in the abandoned school
until the Jesuit Fathers offered the
use of Berchmans Hall, Hot Springs,
North Carolina. The retreats are
now held in Georgia' at Washington
and Savannah for the men and Macon
for the women.
Asserting that “meditation is a term
which frightens the average layman,
and even some retreatants,” Mr. Reid
said that actually “we meditate hour
after hour, day after day and yet when
the thought of daily meditation about
the purpose of life is suggested to
us, even retreatants are inclined too
often to regard it as a spiritual ex
ercise for the clergy alone.”
“Yet,” Mr. Reid continued, “medi
tation is a primary requisite in the
interior life of a Catholic layman.
It does for us daily what the retreat
does for us annually.”
“If we read Catholic books, Cath
olic literature. Catholic newspapers,”
the speaker said, “we shall have plen
ty of material for meditation. This
meditation at first may not be as
introspective as meditation should be
to be most effective, but once we
acquire the habit of meditation, the
giving it the direction we desire will
me a minor difficulty.
“What a powerful source of medi
tation, for instance, is the thought of
our blessed good fortune in our mem
bership in the Mystical Body of
Christ, in the Church of God which
is responsible for all the real prog
ress the world has made ... If we
can but realize fully the priceless
heritage which is ours, none of us
will be ungrateful enough not to
strive to make ourselves worthy of
this great privilege; thus from our
meditation will flow not only a great
er measure of personal sanctifica
tion b.- God’s grace, but also that in
spiration to Catholic Action of which
personal sanctific tion is the founda
tion.”
“Meditation,” continued Mr. Reid
“is but one of the means of develop
ing the interior life of the Cath
olic layman.” “There is no substi
tute,” he said, “for frequent Com
munion, daily if possible, but weekly
at least, if It is impossible.” “There
is no necessity,” he added, “for em
phasizing before a group of retreat
ants the part that retreats play in the
interior life of a Catholic layman. He
is indeed an exceptional man who,
neglecting opportunities to make re
treats, makes substantial progress in
the development of the interior life."
Present at the dinner were the Most
Rev. John M. McNamara, Auxiliary
Bishop of Baltimore, the Very Rev.
James 1 Sweeney, S.: J-, head; of the
Baltimore vice province of the Jesuit
, Fathers, and a number of distinguish
ed priests and laymen. The Rev.
Robert S. Lloyd, S. J., Spiritual Di
rector of Manresa-on-Sevem, the lay
men’s retreat house of the Archdio
cese of Baltimore, reported on the
work of 1937. Charles P. Maloney,
president of the association, made the
opening address and Leo Codd, Esq.,
was toastmaster.
MRS. PINKSTON DIES
Americus Catholic Pioneer
Member of Mission There
AMERICUS, Ga. — Mrs. Elizabeth
I. Pinkston, of St. Mary’s Church
here, died early in January after an
etxended illness. Mrs. Pinkston was
a member of a family widely known
in South Georgia and she was one
of the pioneer Catholics in Albany.
Surviving are her son, James A.
Pinkston; her daughter, Mrs. Sher-
ley Hudson; her brother, Thomas
Jones, a grandson, Sherley Hudson,
and a number of other relatives. The
funeral was held from St. Mary’s
Church with a Requiem Mass, the
Rev. Thomas A. Brennan, pastor at
Albany ; and of the Albany missions,
officiating, assisted by the Rev.
Michael Manning. Interment was in
Oak View Cemetery. The church
was filled to overflowing for tbe fu
neral.
BROTHER JOHN HENNESSY,
seventh superior-general of the Con
gregation of Irish Christian Brothers,
is dead in Dublin at 83, and in the
69th year of his profession. He resign
ed as. superior-general in. 1930 because
of his health. He was a native of
Tralee.
Dr. John D. Mahaney
Is Dead in Columbus
Native of Connecticut Had
Practiced There Since 1913
(Special to The Bulletin)
COLUMBUS, Ga—The death of Dr,
John Daniel Mahaney, widely known
Columbus physician and vice chair*
man of the state athletic commission,
removed from this community one of
its leading citizens.
Born in Waterbury, Conn., January
23,1888, he made his medical studies
at the University of Maryland, and
practiced in Atlanta before coming
here in 1913. In 1915 he was married
to Miss Ellie Henderson of Colum
bus. His brother, D. J. Mahaney of
Waterbury, is a member of the state
senate, and his sister, Mrs. Norah
Harris, is democratic national ccm-
mitteewoman from Connecticut. He
was one of fourteen children; his
father was a prominent realtor in
Waterbury.
Dr. Mahaney was a member of the
American Medical Society, the Geor
gia Medical Society and the Mus
cogee Medical Society. He was a
member of Holy Family Church, from
which his funeral was held with a
Requiem Mass, the Very Rev. D. J.
McCarthy, V. G„ officiating. Inter
ment was in Linwood Cemetery.
MAISIE WARD (Mrs. Frank
Sheed) has been selected i by Mrs.
Gilbert K. Chesterton as the bio
grapher of her late husband.
